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by metalens
2699 days ago
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>>90% percent of defendants plead guilty before trial because 90%+ of defendants are actually guilty of the crimes they've been charged with. In most cases, the defendants accept their guilt and are simply trying to get the best deal (i.e., least prison/jail time) as they can. Except that a disproportionate percentage of poor defendants (who can't afford expensive lawyers) plead guilty before trial because their overworked and underpaid public defenders advise them to. Logic is that pleading guilty before trial gets you a shorter sentence than going to trial. The alternative is going to trial and being incorrectly found guilty and getting a larger sentence for a crime you didn't commit (your public defender has limited time/resources to make a great case for you). The American Justice system is particularly unjust to the poor. Edited for clarity |
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No, a disproportionate percentage of poor defendants plead guilty because they're actually guilty and their underpaid public defenders have advised them its not worth the effort to fight the charges--for the PD or the defendant.
Especially since, as you helpfully pointed out, the DA is less willing to give shorter sentences to guilty defendants who demand a trial. In this context, "shorter" meaning shorter than the likely sentence imposed by the judge after trial, usually even shorter than the statutory range imposed if the defendant is found guilty at trial. This is why defendants plead before trial--in many jurisdictions its the only way you can get a sentence less than the range unless you have a fantastically expensive lawyer (like the lawyer for Brock Turner, the Stanford Student Rapist).
The alternative is going to trial and being incorrectly found guilty and getting a larger sentence for a crime you didn't commit (your public defender has limited time/resources to make a great case for you).
You appear to have a Law & Order understanding of how criminal defense works. In the real world, even private attorneys spend most of a case attacking the DA's case, not building their own case. The Defendant doesn't need to prove anything.